明けましておめでとうございます (Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu). Simply put, “Happy New Year” everyone. Around this time of year we all enjoy reflecting on the year that has passed us by, and the exciting things the new year has to bring. I know my new year was quite the unusual and exciting one, as I spent it here in Japan. Read the rest of this entry →
One thing I haven’t been doing any of while in Japan is watching TV! I know, it is absolutely absurd. You’d of thought that when I got here I would be letting the tube suck my brain dry with all the nonsensical, humorous Japanese programming out there. I really enjoy Japanese television, for several reasons. One being that it is fairly entertaining. Another reason being that somehow food is always the central theme of so many shows, and I love food. Also (and probably most obviously) it is a great study tool.
One thing I noticed since I got here is my roommate watches a bunch of drama. I’ve introduced him to a few TV shows, but he mainly watches a lot of drama. Another thing is that my roommates Japanese is quite good, and quite natural. Unlike me, currently only studying Japanese, he is taking regular university classes here at Dokkyo along with other Japanese students. A good tip he gave me was to watch drama without subtitles (which I do already anyways), but then to re-watch them again with subtitles to see how much of the content you actually got. This is time consuming, but it also reinforces the words you once only heard in Japanese, and gives them more meaning in your brain. If you do the reverse (subtitles first, then raw), you will be going off the english script that is already in your head, compared to reinforcing the Japanese one. Read the rest of this entry →
My Christmas gift this year was quite the interesting one. You’d think the chances of running into the one person who gave you the motivation to start your own blog, in a city like Tokyo with a population of over 8 million people, is pretty much laughable. But I’m still laughing. I actually met Danny Choo in Roppongi on Christmas night. I can’t describe how funny it felt to actually go up to him and ask him “Excuse me, but by any chance are you Danny Choo?” Needless to say, it has left me with a much needed inspirational boost to start posting again. Read the rest of this entry →
It has been a little while hasn’t it? I’ve come to realize that I’m a lot less “plugged in” then I used to be back in the high school days. I have no idea how I wrote on my xanga page 4-5 times a week back in the day. On a random note: While I was thinking of what to write for this post my roommate knocked on my door asking for some help with his english homework. I was so concentrated on what I was going to write here that I could barely form a sentence in Japanese. But then slowly it came back as I started to think in Japanese again. This learning language stuff is really all about how often you are exposed to it in a day. Which is why it is great to have a roommate from Korean who doesn’t speak english. On that note, I really think I need to be upping my Japanese exposure even more than I am already. Which basically just means cutting back on the english whenever possible in terms of speaking and receiving (including thinking in my head).
But anyways, I’m sure you are all quite ticked with me for not putting anything up in the last few weeks. I’m kinda upset about it myself, but my days have been all but long and carefree since I got here. I haven’t really settled into my usual rhythm of doing things yet, despite it being a month and a bit since I got here. Although, I do think that I’m slowly finding a good pattern once again. So hopefully that will allow me to post more regularly. I still haven’t really thought about what to do for my next YT video. But I should that about that soon, as well.
Just letting you all know that I’m alive and well. I’m actually exhausted right now and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I’m meeting up with Hiko, which should be good fun. So I needs to gets me some rest.
Update again on the weekend. I swears!
Am I really in Japan? (Roppongi on a Friday night Sept. 26th, 2008)
To start, if there is one thing I 100% confirmed from this whole experience, it is that: No matter where in the world I go, I’m not a clubber. I hate it. I hate everything there is to it. That is all. There are a million other ways I could think of to better spend my time here on earth, other than getting into a room clearly over the legal capacity of occupants, paying 8 dollars for beers, having my ears completely destroyed, and dry humping the night away. I’ve never been fond of clubs, or the people attracted to them. At least it is off my check list now. All thats left is to talk briefly about my experience here. Read the rest of this entry →
Saturday after (I can’t hear anything out of my right ear…) 3:36pm sept 27th, 2008
Once again, it goes without saying but SO freakin’ much has happened since my last post. In a 4 day range since tuesday I’ve been through quite a fair number of experiences I’m not really used to going through back in Canada. I really think there are some of you who are really curious as to what I mean, and I know I’ve been nothing but unfair in my updates, leaving out lots of details, and not even getting my posts up! I shouldn’t have decided to have this site if I wasn’t going to update it. I’m really sorry, but I’m still waiting on my roomates to split internet costs, and I haven’t gone through the appropriate procedures at school yet to get wireless on my lappy while on campus. I will very soon though! Life has just been taking me on one hell of a ride that I haven’t had too many chances to get off of yet. I’d hope someday that you too can understand my feeling now.
Let’s go chronologically here, starting with the first day of school on Wednesday.
PICS AND NEW POSTS UP SOON! I FINALLY GOT INTERNET ON MY LAPPY! YAYYY!
—————————————-
Written on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
It has been 2 weeks since the day I arrived here in Soka, and there is already so much to write down here that I could literally be sitting here for hours just frantically typing away. I’ve been sitting here at the local bucks for the last 15 minutes, sipping on my iced latte, trying to thing of some sort of logical way to break this post up into segments that make sense. Probably would have been easier if I updated day by day. I guess I have to start doing that, but then I hate when these things just turn into my daily routine: I woke up this morning, brushed my teeth, changed, went to school, blah blah blah. I’m still thinking about what is relevant to discuss here, what others will want to read, and what I will want to re-read in the future.
Almost 2 weeks have passed since I wrote this first post. Since then there has been so much going on and a lot of things have changed. New posts will definitely come, but for now, here is the post from the day after I arrived.
—————–
Initial Thoughts (7:27am @ Starbucks Soka Station… no internet here):
In the last day or 2 alone I’ve gone through such a wide range of emotions that I am not often used to going through in such a short period of time. While I know deep down that no matter what I think of feel at present in terms of anxiety, regret, fear, and uncertainty, that I have made the right choice by coming here, there is something that currently bothers me about being in Japan this time around. Read the rest of this entry →
Wondering why adsense has decided to run anime dvd box set banners rather than anything useful. Anyways, out of here in 3 days. Until then, I have nothing exciting to talk about. Just going to update and tweak the site here and there to suit my needs when I’m in Japan. Thinking about taking my youtube vids down as well, but haven’t made a final decision. I’m actually really surprised that I’ve come close to 300 subscribers with the amount of inactivity, lack of Japanese speaking, and lack of being present in Japan.
Oh well… hopefully that all ends in 3 days time. I definitely need to give my brain some time to jump start into a proper schedule again though, as the last month or so hasn’t been an eventful one in terms of studying. I get tired reading books now…. in english =( So it is my hope that while stressed out studying into the late hours of the night at a local Starbucks in Japan, that I will use some slack time to keep everyone updated with my thoughts.
Thanks for reading.
I’m back from my little “vacation” (as if I needed one) and I figure it is time to get posting again. Today, I bring you 2 rather interesting areas in the prefecture of Tokyo. I’m actually doing a post on Shimokitazawa in particular because I just found out a friend who was once in Toronto on working holiday is now living in Shimokitazawa. The other is an area of Ueno which sells the display foods for restaurants, which is also a really interesting place to walk around. Read the rest of this entry →
Danny Choo's Site! Neil Duckett in Japan
